Oh Hae Young Again episode 11 recap

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Side dish: If you, like Hae Young, tend to eat uncooked ramen noodles when you’re feeling down, let me encourage to find new uses for them by making Instant Ramen Gnocchi Parisienne, using this recipe from Lucky Peach. If you scroll down, you get a few other instant ramen options, too.

Episode Recap

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Do Kyung (Eric Mun) shades the eyes of the sleeping Hae Young (Seo Hyun Jin) with his hand, as they are driven back from their impromptu excursion of the night before. Back in Seoul, Hae Young’s former fiancé and current who-knows-what, Tae Jin (Lee Jae Yoon) comes face to face with Hae Young’s parents outside their house, and tells them Hae Young hasn’t been answering her phone. Hae Young’s mom, Duk Yi (Kim Mi Kyung) wonders why Hae Young would answer his calls anyway, prompting Tae Jin to go down on his knees to apologize. Duk Yi just walks away, while Hae Young’s father tries to get Tae Jin to stand up.

Do Kyung and Hae Young arrive back at Do Kyung’s house. Hae Young realizes how late she is and rushes into her apartment to change, but not before stopping to give Do Kyung one more hug. As Do Kyung watches her go, Jin Sang (Kim Ji Seok) comes out looking for his car, having blacked out the night before. He’s not the only one, as Do Kyung’s stepbrother, Hoon (Heo Jeong Min) wakes up to find that his girlfriend has painted his nails, thus preventing him from looking cool while he confronts Do Kyung and leaves the house. As Hoon berates her on the phone, Jin Sang bursts in and takes Hoon’s phone away to call his friend to find out what happened the night before.

At breakfast with Do Kyung and their older sister, Soo Kyung (Ye Ji Won), Hoon’s cool goes entirely out the window as he accidentally splatters jam on Do Kyung’s face, then admits to his nail art problem. He confesses his entire plan to confront Do Kyung, but he’s interrupted by the arrival of Jin Sang, who has tracked down his car to Yanyang Prison. Much to Soo Kyung’s disapproval, Jin Sang admits that he spent the evening in the company of a gold-digger on furlough. The two of them end up arguing in French over who is more disgusting.

Tae Jin tries to track Hae Young down at her office, only to be told she hasn’t arrived yet. Instead he runs into Hae Young’s co-worker, who happens to be walking by with pretty Hae Young (Jeon Hye Bin). Dispirited, Tae Jin leaves, but not before he’s spotted by Hae Young as she runs into the building.

At work, Hae Young calls Tae Jin to meet up that evening, because she has something to tell him. Moments later, she gets a call from Do Kyung, and tells him that she’ll be late because she has to end things with Tae Jin first. Do Kyung tells Hae Young to meet with him first, since he has something to say too. Hae Young promptly cancels on Tae Jin, and the three of them are set on a collision course for disaster as Tae Jin decides to drop by after work anyway.

And it is a disaster, as Tae Jin spots Do Kyung and immediately punches him. Hae Young is at first appalled at Tae Jin’s actions, then just generally appalled as Tae Jin spills the news that Do Kyung ruined his business and sent him to jail. Tae Jin now assumes that it was because Do Kyung liked Hae Young, but Hae Young instantly realizes the truth, that it was over pretty Hae Young. When Do Kyung tries to explain, Hae Young just walks away from both of them. Tae Jin takes the opportunity to beat the crap out of Do Kyung, who doesn’t fight back.

Hae Young is a wreck as she remembers everything that happened up to this moment, but she eventually finds her resolve and tracks down pretty Hae Young to a restaurant and attacks her. She’s barely restrained by the people at the table, and afterwards, she ends up at the apartment of her friend, Hee Ran (Ha Shi Eun), who confesses that she may have started the confusion by randomly mentioning the news of Hae Young’s impending wedding to Do Kyung.

Do Kyung, meanwhile, wanders the city aimlessly, followed by Jin Sang, then Hoon, then his co-workers. Jin Sang tries and fails to explain the situation to Hoon and the gang, but they end up more confused than they started. Instead, they kidnap Do Kyung and take him to the beach, where they force him to enjoy himself by throwing him in the water. In the end, Jin Sang tries to pick up a group of women to perk up Do Kyung, but abandons this plan when one of them turns out to be named Oh Hae Young.

Back at work the next day, the rumours of what Hae Young’s attack on pretty Hae Young are flying all over the place. Pretty Hae Young goes to report the incident to Soo Kyung, but finds that she’s not sympathetic. Instead, pretty Hae Young sends a text to Hae Young asking her to explain herself.

Hae Young, meanwhile, is in a fog at her parents’ house, which she breaks out of only when Duk Yi berates her for her eating habits. Instead of confiding in Duk Yi, Hae Young imparts her theory that she only exists to take pretty Hae Young’s bad luck, then suggests that they move to a rural area so that she’ll compare favourably to other women.

Hoon meets up with Hee Ran to discuss his script, but discovers instead that Hee Ran is outraged on behalf of Do Kyung’s treatment of Hae Young, and reluctant to work with Hoon because of it. Hoon shamelessly lies to her about his own outrage, then takes off the nail art that An Na, his girlfriend put on when Hee Ran points out that she doesn’t like it. As he drops one, Hoon takes notice of Hee Ran’s legs. Later, Hoon ends up in a fight with An Na over the nails, since she had put them on to proclaim his status as her boyfriend. Finally, Hoon loses patience with her antics and leaves. When she chases him out, An Na yells after him that she sensed that something was up.

The next day, Do Kyung goes out to record the sound of a stream, but instead of enjoying the scenery, he sends a text to Hae Young. Hae Young, meanwhile, has gone out to a café in full battle armour, including heavy makeup and fishnet stockings, and is unimpressed with Do Kyung’s terse, “I’m sorry.”

When Do Kyung goes to meet her and tries to take her somewhere they can talk privately, Hae Young refuses to budge. Hae Young explains that she’s covered her face in makeup because she hates herself so much that she wants to be someone else. Do Kyung can’t do anything but repeat how sorry he is, but Hae Young refuses to accept it. A crowd gathers around them as he desperately tries to figure out what she wants him to say. Finally, Hae Young tells him to get on his knees and beg for forgiveness. A conflicted Do Kyung walks away instead. Hae Young, meanwhile, walks away crying, explaining in voiceover that she’d never heard him say that he loved her.

Pretty Hae Young has dinner with her ex-stepfather, Chairman Jang, who tells her that he can’t see her anymore, because he’s going to marry Do Kyung’s mother and it makes his family tree look complicated if he spends time with Do Kyung’s ex-fiancée on top of it. Pretty Hae Young agrees, but when he tells her to cut off all contact with Do Kyung herself, she looks conflicted. Her reply is cut short by the arrival of Tae Jin, who has come to confront Chairman Jang. Tae Jin threatens Chairman Jang, but the upshot is that pretty Hae Young hears the story of how Do Kyung ruined Tae Jin’s company because of his impending marriage to Hae Young.

Do Kyung, meanwhile, gets an earful from Jin Sang for not begging Hae Young for forgiveness. Jin Sang points out that Do Kyung should have said he loved her and then done anything she wanted, but Do Kyung says nothing. As if on cue, pretty Hae Young appears, and an exasperated Jin Sang walks away. Pretty Hae Young tells Do Kyung that she’s happy that he ruined Tae Jin and Hae Young’s wedding, because it proves that he did love her. Pretty Hae Young still love Do Kyung, but Do Kyung just walks away from her as she cries after him.

Tae Jin now also knows the whole story, and sitting in his car, he starts laughing at how ridiculous the whole story is, then finally lets out his anger.

As he walks through the streets, Do Kyung sees another vision, of himself being hit by a car. Back in the psychiatrist’s office, Do Kyung tells the psychiatrist that it’s better that things ended with Hae Young the way they did, since he’s going to die anyway.

Comments

Is it me, or does everyone on this show drink too much? I have no idea if Hae Young was drunk when she attacked pretty Hae Young (I’ll assume so, because she sure gets drunk a lot), but I do know that both Jin Sang and Hoon blacked out this episode. Sure, they played it for comedy, but given how regularly this happens on this show, maybe it’s not that funny?

Anyway, back to the show. Given the premise, Do Kyung’s noble idiocy was probably to be expected. For a change, however, it’s pretty obvious that Do Kyung’s idiocy is not that noble, but instead stems from his inability to open up. Do Kyung may say that he’s protecting Hae Young from his impending death, but the fact that Do Kyung was unable to declare his feelings for Hae Young in the face of her justified anger is telling. Any idiot (even Jin Sang) could have figured out what to say in that situation; Do Kyung pretending not to know is ridiculous at best.

But, if this show is about anything, it’s about people’s inability to communicate. Pretty Hae Young couldn’t tell Do Kyung what her problem was, and so she ran out on him instead. Rather than express his anger, Do Kyung took revenge in a way that wouldn’t involve any contact with his victim, and thus mistakenly ruined Tae Jin’s life. Rather than tell Hae Young about what he was going through, Tae Jin chose to cruelly dump Hae Young.

Hae Young, on the other hand, is at the other extreme, where her emotions are all on display; she constantly swings from anger to depression to happiness and back again. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a character to stop and have a rational conversation as much as Hae Young. I wish she’d been able to have a talk with pretty Hae Young at some point, rather than randomly directing venom her way and then attacking her twice. In fact, I wish she’d been able to talk things through with Do Kyung, too. Not because his actions deserved a calm discussion, but because she seemed to be beating herself up rather than getting what she needed from stupid Do Kyung.